Men’s Grooming: Eyebrow Maintenance

Men’s Grooming: Eyebrow Maintenance

Along with bad finger nails and an overuse of hair product, unruly eyebrows are up there with the worst grooming crimes a guy can commit. If they’re not kept neat and tidy it can ruin an otherwise impeccable look, and create a negative first impression of your image – so it’s important to consider eyebrow maintenance part of your routine.

Alpha males don’t panic, I’m not talking about shaping your eyebrows so that you look permanently surprised, just some subtle grooming to ensure your brows don’t become overgrown. Most men I know have to do a little eyebrow maintenance at some point in their lives, whether it’s regular upkeep or the occasional tidy up.

So what’s the best way to approach eyebrow grooming at home? To give you some guidance I’ve broken it down into two stages: First avoiding the monobrow, and secondly shaping & general maintenance – to help you get a handle on your brows.

Phase 1: Avoiding A Monobrow

Something that every guy should be doing, avoiding the monobrow is eyebrow maintenance for beginners. Obviously not everyone has a comical unibrow that meets in the middle, but I’d bet that most guys have stray hairs in the centre of their eyebrows that need attending too. All it takes is your chosen tool and a couple of minutes of your time and you could totally transform your brows.

Setting up camp in front of a well lit mirror with a pair of decent tweezers (like those featured below) is the first step. Next, wash and cleanse the area with warm water before using your fingers to brush down your eyebrows so it’s easy to spot those that are out of place. Once you’ve established long wiry hairs that need removing, stretch out your skin with your free hand and begin to pluck the individual hairs working from the centre of your brows, outwards. Yes, it does hurt a little to begin with but you get used to it!

Alternatively, you can use wax strips to get a quicker, smoother result. But I would advise with wax strips that you take extra care, because the results can be much more drastic and it’s probably best if you get someone to help you with this method. With waxing, precision is everything – only time can rectify any mistakes.

Phase 2: Shaping & Maintenance

Once you’ve got a handle on your monobrow, you can take your eyebrow grooming to the next level and further perfect your overall appearance. Often guys can have hairs above and/or below their eyebrows that give them a overgrown or ‘fuzzy’ appearance. Removing these requires you to take things really slowly, because the last thing you want to do is over pluck.

Again, you’ll need a well lit mirror, and you’ll need to thoroughly cleanse the area first. Use your fingers, or the Boots Brush & Comb, to ensure your eyebrows are smoothed down, this ensures you’re only removing the necessary stray strands. Then you can either go to work with your tweezers to banish unruly brow hairs, and tidy any edges and flicks with a pair of Tweezerman Facial Hair Scissors if you need to.

Tweezerman Mens Deluxe Grooming Kit

Tweezerman Men Facial Hair Scissors

Boots Brush & Comb

The Dos & Don’ts Of Eyebrow Maintenance

Do…

Ask for help if you need it. Chances are you’ll know someone trustworthy who has more experience in eyebrow maintenance than you, so don’t be afraid to ask for their help getting started. I know lots of guys whose girlfriends/wives help them keep control of their eyebrows. But whoever you ask for help, make sure you make it clear how you want to look.

Prepare. Before tweezing or waxing it’s important to make sure the area is clean and free from oil and dirt. Whether you’re tweezing or waxing, warm water will also open your pores and soften the hair follicle (just like before shaving) to ensure hair removal is easy, effective and pain free.

Invest in your tools. As with almost every grooming product, you get what you pay for. Cheap tweezers won’t last and will give an inferior performance compared to higher quality brands like tweezerman – so it’s worth investing to get better results.

Don’t…

Use a razor, EVER. I can’t stress enough how you should never use a razor to remove eyebrow hair. It’s too drastic, there’s too much risk of you removing an entire chunk, and you’ll be left with stubbly regrowth that will appear even thicker than before.

Remove too much too soon. Take your time and remove one hair at a time. If you’re rushing, or plucking away without checking your progress, you’re much more likely to end up removing more than you bargained for. Once it’s gone – it’s gone, so regularly assess the situation to avoid embarrassing over-removal.

Cut in chunks If you’re using scissors to remove strays, make sure you do just that – remove strays. Using scissors to remove more than one or two strands isn’t advisable and can lead to patchwork brows.